Where the magic meets the mundane

A day on the set of "Passionada"

By Robert Lovinger, Standard-Times staff writer

Photography by Jack Iddon, Standard-Times chief photographer

(click on each photo to view caption)

Somebody actually said it.
On the street, middle-aged Teamsters and 20-something crew members, thoroughly baked by a day of unrelenting heat, were packing up a sea of equipment and supplies. From somewhere inside 484 Brock Ave., a male voice called out, "It's a wrap!"
On this day, which began at 6 a.m. and ended after 8 p.m., four minutes and 20 seconds were added to a work of art or commerce -- or if they're lucky, both -- called "Passionada." For the first time in 80 years, moviemakers are shooting a full-length motion picture in New Bedford. They'll be here 'til the end of July, weaving a story of love and laughter that, with luck and skill, will transport moviegoers to a magical place: their own emotions. Except that the work of making a movie is less like weaving and more like breaking rocks.

Greg Hale stood in the middle of Brock Avenue, looking irritable.
It was Wednesday, just past 6 a.m., the beginning of a 15-hour day, and this was as cheerful as he'd get. As "Passionada's" second assistant director, Mr. Hale owns what has to be the production's toughest job. It's his never-ending, stress-bathed assignment to make sure everyone and everything is where it's supposed to be when it's supposed to be there. The sun, low in the sky, threw its light against the buildings of Brock Avenue, sending sharp shadows into the street and over Mr. Hale, a stocky, handsome man with long, thick hair.
"I was up at 5. I shaved last night," he said, with little expression. "It's going to be a hot one." It already was -- 80 degrees with more than five hours to go 'til noon. Wednesday had barely begun, and Mr. Hale was already dealing with Thursday. "Tomorrow, I want to take a 6 a.m. call for a 7:15 shoot," Paul Bernard told him. Mr. Bernard is "Passionada's" first assistant director and co-executive producer. Mr. Hale creates the detailed "call sheets" that tell everyone on the set what will happen today, tomorrow and in days to come. "Then I change them and I change them and I change them ..."

A dozen mostly white trucks were arriving at 484 Brock, known to the movie folk as "Celia's House," because the film's main character lives there. Containing bathrooms, equipment, food, offices and actors' dressing rooms, the trucks turned Annette Street into a parking lot. Doors on the offices wore such labels as "Transportation," "Dan Ireland" (the director), "Dialect Coach" and "Clown Room" (belonging to Mr. Hale). Located at the corner of Annette and Brock, Celia's house sits just down the avenue from the Belmont Club and Roberta's School of Dance. The two families who normally live there were moved out. They've been replaced by the fictional Amonte family: Celia (Sofia Milos), her teenage daughter, Vicky (Emmy Rossum), and her mother-in-law, Angelica (Lupe Ontiveros). Often, the production shoots at more than one location in a day. But it would spend all of Wednesday here, and that made Mr. Hale's job a lot easier.
"I love that," he said. "No Parking" signs were plastered on trees along a 200-yard stretch of Brock. Soon, too, the street was blocked off by sawhorses, with a New Bedford cop re-routing traffic at each end.

The neighborhood's early-morning quiet was no more. Roughly 50 technicians, gaffers, PAs (production assistants), stand-ins and others were arriving. This was no longer simply a city street. It was a sound stage.
With the shouts of crew, the first crackling of walkie-talkies and the exhaust of the trucks, the neighborhood was waking, whether it needed to or not. A catering crew would serve breakfast and lunch a few blocks down in the Hazelwood Park senior drop-in center.
But for in-between snacking and liquids, "crafts" person Sue Christy of Newport, R.I., kept canopied tables on Annette Street stocked all day with pastry, fresh fruit, all manner of finger food and beverages. Nevertheless, the crew's food groups of choice were coffee, cigarettes and bottled water.

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